Chicken and Pasta

It was nice to be home again tonight after having a lovely weekend away in Sydney for a wedding.   For the past four days it seemed like all I did was eat food, read about food and eat some more, and the food at the wedding was amazing, plenty of it and very well done from start to finish.

We started off with a huge antipasto plate, followed up by a very tasty mushroom tortellini and for the main it was either a rack of lamb or a chicken breast with camembert cheese.  

I had the lamb and it was so tender, table etiquette went out the window a little though when I picked up and chewed the bones, it was very nice.  Jo had the chicken, which she enjoyed very much, the dessert included spearmint ice-cream, chocolate mousse, a chocolate coated strawberry and a little lemon curd tart, to say we were full after all that would an understatement.

We stayed with our friend Princess Mary’s, at her place in Willoughby, which is a great location being close to the city and surrounded by fantastic cafes and restaurants.  Mary has a library full of cook books, which kept me busy and I was able to nick a few recipes from the wonderful collection of books, just hope I can read my writing ok now!

As nice as it is eating out and being waited on is, it was great to get home tonight and prepare dinner for Jo and myself, it was nothing to fancy though, as we have not shopped and there is little in the house.  I made a very simple tomato sauce, following a recipe I pinched out of an Italian cookbook, unfortunately I cannot remember what it was called, but the recipe looked simple but tasty and that is exactly what we got.  I crumbed some chicken to go with it, using fresh breadcrumbs and adding a tablespoon of fresh lemon thyme, salt and pepper, a ¼ cup of grated pecorino cheese, a tablespoon of dried Italian herds.  For the sauce I minced a small onion and cooked it in oil over a moderate heat until it was translucent, then added a minced stick of celery, a handful of chopped parsley and a crushed clove of garlic, mixed in with the onion and cooked slowly for 10-15 minutes.  Whilst the celery was cooking I dice up ten very ripe tomatoes, these where added to the pan along with a generous sprinkling of salt and cracked pepper, after mixing the tomatoes in with the other ingredients, cover the pan with a lid and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Once the sauce is cooked remove from the heat and stir through a handful of freshly torn basil. I cooked up some spaghetti and once cooked drain the water off then stirred through half the sauce, then placed the chicken on the pasta and spooned more sauce over the top.  A very simple but tasty dinner!

Thanks for having us Mary, and for the fantastic recipes, can't wait to try them out!